While the debate about ecological and economical benefit of exhaust gas treatment systems is on-going, Anders Skibdal, CEO of scrubber manufacturer PureteQ, advocates a differentiated view on various questions
The Danish company currently has five factories that are producing scrubber towers for its business. Talking to HANSA about the[ds_preview] harsh competition, Skibdal argues that he does not aim to be the biggest supplier in the market, »but we aim to remain amongst the best and most reliable suppliers«, and more precisely the number of factories may slightly increase in the future.
In general, he does not expect a lot of consolidation: »We are aware that there are a couple of manufactures up for sale. Also some manufacturers have sold all or part of their business to shipowners. Most of the new scrubber makers are suppling u-type scrubbers and it is hard to imagine that one u-type supplier would be interested in acquiring another maker that makes almost the same product.« Skibdal could however imagine that some of the very few i-type scrubber manufactures could be of interest to a u-type manufacturer in order to offer a complete product range and vice versa.
Regarding the debate about fuel prices as important aspect for the business case of scrubbers, the CEO does not agree with the many maritime professionals that claim that scrubbers are only an interim solution.» If this should be the case, then we would see a lot of new and alternative solutions on the market. Of course there are other ways to comply with the 2020 Sulphur Cap than installing scrubbers, but scrubbers remain the most economically feasible solution for the majority of vessels.« He adds, the choice of abatement technology depends entirely on the price span between low sulphur oil and high sulphur oil. And he thinks that there also in the future will exist a considerable price span between fuels and thus that scrubbers continue to be one of the most important abatement technologies.
Skibdal refers to the new study published by Norway’s SINTEF, one of Europe’s largest independent research organizations, in which Chief Scientist Elizabeth Lindstad concluded that from well-to-wake the continued use of heavy fuel oil (HFO) with a scrubber is the most environmentally beneficial means of meeting GHG emissions targets (see page 50).
As a majority of new manufacturers on the market seem to be learning from the first generation of maritime scrubbers, the CEO in that respect expects very little innovation on the size and shaping of the scrubbers. For him, the innovation is primarily into the design and installation in order to lower the OPEX on the systems – energy consumption and maintenance cost. Reliability issues become growingly more important, as there is a huge difference in the OPEX on existing systems. »As the market learns who delivers the best systems, there will be a natural selection.«
He believes that »in time there will be stricter legislation on the discharge limits and thus that more systems will become hybrid systems«.
PureteQ delivers scrubbers for Maritime Universities as well. These scrubbers are used to produce wash water to test new water treatment methods. Skibdal says he therefore thinks that more affordable and reliable solutions will be available in a few years, and that many of the shipowners that have purchased hybrid ready systems will actually upgrade to hybrid systems.
